Students at an Ontario high school are getting their hands dirty — and in the process, learning valuable lessons about social justice, community, and themselves. Takkouch & DeCoito report on how urban agriculture projects help grow connections between high school students and the community. They studied a programme aimed at empowering underserved youth and communities. Their findings are that students were growing outside the garden as well as inside.
Takkouch & DeCoito discuss a high school urban agriculture project which was was part of a larger initiative called PACT GTL (Peace, Actualization, Community, Transformation Grow-to-Learn). PACT is a Canadian charity focused on empowering underserved communities. They aim to transform unused spaces into productive gardens. The idea is the students learn about sustainable agriculture practices through hands-on activities. The result was students were actively involved in planting, maintaining, and harvesting crops in the school garden.
The researchers found that gardening increased awareness of food security issues. It also helped develop awareness of social justice and so promoted positive youth development in areas like competence, confidence and compassion. It also helped students develop a connection to their local community and grow their sense of self-worth as part of that. They ended up giving weekly deliveries to the local food bank.
School gardens are becoming more popular as a way to teach about food, environment and community. Takkouch & DeCoito state that Gardens can help connect students to their cultural backgrounds and build social skills. However, they also note that running a school garden is not easy and it presents challenges such as time, funding and curriculum integration.
Takkouch, M., & DeCoito, I. (2024). “Not everyone has the privilege to have good food”: promoting positive youth development and social justice values in school gardens. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-024-00983-5 ($)
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